1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a computer-implemented vehicle processing facility analysis system, more particularly, to a method of tracking a vehicle during a repair process.
2. Background
Vehicle repair shops or facilities handle a large volume of vehicles. Vehicles remain many days within the shops since the repair process has many time consuming steps. For example in a typical collision repair process, vehicles undergo a vehicle disassembly step, frame repair step, metal repair step, preparation step, painting step, reassembly step, and testing step. Delays invariably arise from a number of sources. Exemplary delay sources include the incorrect parts being delivered or insurance companies slowly processing vehicle collision claims.
Due to the large volume of vehicles that repair shops handle, managers find it difficult to correctly diagnose what delays occur enough times to warrant correction. The delays that occur most frequently might be able to be diagnosed. However, delays that occur less frequently escape detection and correction.
Not only is the diagnosis of vehicle delays problematic, but it is difficult for an owner of a repair shop to obtain, in a relatively straightforward way, a comprehensive view of how the shop is performing in terms of facility potential, profit potential and other factors relative to other shops, let alone know how it is performing relative to the top vehicle repair shops. Business analysis software packages exist, but are typically not directed to the combination of many specifics (e.g., cycle time analysis, facility shift, and other factors) of a vehicle repair shop, and therefore are less complete. A non-limiting specific example includes the amount of paint used by technicians in the repair process. Typical business analysis software packages are not directed to analyzing the usage of paint and how such usage compares with other shops.